Pygmalion effect unlikely to propel Vietnam’s English upgrade plans

Vietnam aims to achieve in 7 years something that took Singapore three decades Hundreds of thousands of students sitting for their university entrance examinations this week would have been surprised to know that many of their teachers were sharing their acute anxiety. “I just feel extremely nervous,” said Nguyen Duc Nghiem, a junior high school English teacher in Ho Chi Minh City. “The upcoming test is wearing me down,” he told Vietweek. Nghiem is among some 86,000 English teachers across Vietnam who are taking European standard exams aimed at gauging if they are competent enough to churn out an English-savvy young workforce by 2020 as part of an ambitious government project. The tests for the teachers are being carried out gradually until 2015 and those who fail the screening can face dismissal. “I only wish we had more time to get prepared for such tough tasks,” Nghiem said. The timeframe of the project has been severely criticized by independent experts, who doubt Vietnam will be able to accomplish a task that took its better-off neighbors several decades. Other things about the project do not add up as well, they say. “If we look at the quality of English teaching in Vietnam and the lack of support in terms of salaries, resources and in service training, I would have to say that the targets do not look very achievable to me,” said Dennis Berg, who has worked as an educational consultant in Vietnam for over 20 years. “Without faculty development and…